That brings us to the game at hand – Primordia. Primordia is
a simple (in graphical, technical, and mechanical terms) point and click game
where you’ll find yourself hunting down items over 4-5 different “areas” at a
time, figuring out how to combine those items into the parts you actually need
or the items another character wants before he’ll give you some critical
information, and generally completing all manner of puzzles, even if it is
simply determining what item someone wants before they will trade you the item
you believe you need to progress. The excitement in this game comes from its
story and the challenge of figuring out what you need and where to get it, not
from eye melting graphics. The result is a game you’ll certainly want to play.
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| The story is well done, and there is plenty of humor in there between the main characters, one of whom is voiced by Logan Cunningham, the same individual who voiced the narrator in Bastion. |
The story behind Primordia can be either simple or complex,
which actually depends on what you do and what you discover during the game.
The basic premise is that you are the robot Horatio Nullbuilt, version 5. Along
with your partner, Crispin Horatiobuilt, version 1, you are attempting to
rebuild the heavily damaged ship called the Unnic. It is simply the two of you
out in the wasteland known as the dunes, scavenging for the parts you need to,
eventually, get this ship to fly again. Everything seems to be going well, that
is, until a very large robot that shoots lasers out of its hands cuts his way
into your ship, shoots you, and steals your power core, the object that
provides power both to your ship, and to you.
Thus your adventure starts by making sure you don’t die. All
you need to do is turn on the backup generator. That task would be easier if
you had a working generator, which, upon closer inspection, needs a spark plug
and some power bearing conduit to connect it to the ship. You’re generally
limited to the amount of space you can explore at one time, and at this point
in the game you’ll have access to 3-4 screens around your ship, as well as one
at the junk pile, which is a favorite scrounging spot. By finding “hotspots”
you can interact with, combining items in your inventory, and giving Crispin
commands to interact with other items, such as having him push a lamp off
ledge, since you can’t reach it and Crispin can fly, so that you can access
another part of the ship, you’ll unlock additional areas to explore. In a
nutshell, that’s how the game goes. Explore a somewhat limited area at first,
then, once you have solved some key puzzles there, explore the newly expanded
area for additional items, as well as backtracking to some of the previous
places for a few more items. The game does have a hard break in the middle,
where you’ll change locations, and the whole process starts over again.
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| There are plenty of things you can interact with that don't work. The game will let you know what you try something like that. |
The gameplay is simple, and in a certain way, relaxing. I
phrase it thusly because some of the puzzles are a bit difficult, and often I
felt I was blocked from progressing because I was missing some key component,
which usually turned out to involve using Crispin on something, since he really
is just another item in your inventory, as well as a source of helpful hints
and humorous remarks. The game tells you it can be played using only the mouse,
but you can actually use the keyboard in a few places too, such as when
entering code numbers into a keypad (this doesn’t work for the signal
transmitter you’ll use pretty often though, which is a bit annoying), and is
required at an info kiosk is the city of Metropol that you’ll eventually make
it to, which doubles as one of the more difficult puzzles in the game. That
one, as well as a handful of others, may be troubling enough that you’ll want
to use a guide, something I will reluctantly admit I did, because hey, I didn’t
realize that tiny blue light was something I could interact with, let along use
my signal transmitter to activate.
A little more on the story, setting, and other things that
would fall into that same kind of category. The robots live (is that really the
right word?) is a post-apocalyptic world that man has disappeared from. What
remains, when you get to Metropol, the City of Glass and Light, is crumbling. The politics
there, the war that killed man, and how that all came about is something you
can discover. That’s because there are several key choices you can make in the
game that define your potential endings. Some of these choices are things I
hadn’t even realized I made, so on my first play through I was completely
unaware that I was making choices that would define the endings I could
possibly access. There are a ton of endings too. Depending on how you do
things, there are 7 possible ways to end the game. However, the cut scenes and
what happens after that final choice can change depending on the friends you
save, the new friends you make, and several other choices. You’ll probably need
to play through the game a few times, making a couple of different decisions,
to see them all. That, or have multiple save files from key decision making points
of the game ready.
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| The background is pretty interesting, and finding out just what happened to the last of the humans is a pretty critical part of the game. |
In the end, I’d say Primordia is a great game. I had a lot
of fun playing the game in little bits of free time, despite being frustrated
with a puzzle more than once, and managed to put over 7 hours into the game.
However, I then went back and played it again, partly because I was curious
about other endings and partly because I was short an achievement or two that
you can’t get until you’re done or almost done, and knowing what to do cut my
time to a third of what it took initially – 2.5 hours. I picked up the game for
$2.50, which was a pretty good deal at 75% off, but would get it again at 66%
or maybe even 50%, since it is such short game. It is a quality game though,
one that you should pick up next time it’s on sale and play whenever you want
to get away from some of those other, over hyped games by getting back to some
basics – 9 out of 10.
So, the final breakdown:
Score: 9/10
Suggest Price: $3.33
*****
For more Primordia, check out this collection of screenshots otherwise unused in
this review. Click on any one for a large image.
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